Tewinbury Green Policy

The mission

To operate a business that is aware of environmental issues and strives to reduce its environmental impact.

The aims

• To reduce our environmental impact via carefully monitored energy use: the management of water, implementation of ethical cleaning supplies, and source where practicably possible from local suppliers.
• To reduce the contribution to landfill waste as the business grows and expands through a culture of recycling.
• An awareness and minimisation for both light and sound pollution.
• To use local craftsmen to help maintain the ambience of a working farm.
• To communicate and educate the hotel team on their individual contribution to the hotel's Green Policy. Create and build a new and exciting ‘green culture’.
• To encourage guests to become part of the ‘green culture’ at Tewinbury by communicating ways in which they can contribute.
• To fully comply with legislation and the law, and be proactive in relation to government environmental guidelines.
• To operate a business with a 'Three Ps' bottom line: people, planet, profit.
• To work towards net-zero - cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible.

Our Estate Manager is a keen environmentalist who took on the task of ensuring Tewinbury became as sustainable as possible beginning with the hotel’s borehole. With a rich source of natural water 65m beneath the hotel, a borehole was drilled down, removing water which is passed through a filtering system, supplied by Eco Pure Waters and now supplies pure water to the hotel, served in recycled, re-useable glass bottles, saving the cost and transportation of 21,000 bottles of water per year.

Recycling

In every department, bins have been installed to be filled with dry mixed recycling consisting of plastic packaging, both hard and soft, plastic cups, drink cans, cardboard boxes, newspapers, magazines, and metal. These are emptied into our 1,100-kilo bins, collected and transferred to a recycling centre along with glass and cardboard, all to be fully recycled.

Green bins for bio-degradable products are also located around all departments. They are collected in corn starch bags and redistributed into 1,100-kilo wheelie bins, collected on a weekly basis by a vehicle which runs on bio-fuel, giving a boost to the scheme's sustainability. The product goes through a rigorous Anaerobic Digestion (AD) system which is then turned into organic fertiliser which goes back onto the land and also produces electricity which is fed back into the national grid.

Red bins are used for general waste; general waste has rapidly declined in weight due to the recycling segregation system. The general waste is transferred to an incineration plant which in turn produces energy.

All garden waste is composted on-site and all our kitchen oil is collected by a local supplier for recycling.

With all of these procedures in place, we're proud to announce that at the beginning of 2013, we became one of Hertfordshire’s first Zero to Landfill businesses.

Vehicle pollution

This is a huge topic of news around the world and we are trying to contribute toward lowering carbon emissions. A complimentary shuttle bus is offered to local businesses whereby their guests can leave their own cars on-site and travel to and from their place of work. The shuttle bus seats 14 passengers and can therefore save up to 14 additional vehicles being on the road.

We have an electric-powered passenger buggy which encourages guests to park their cars and either walk or use the buggy to make their way around the large site.

Bicycles are available to use free of charge for leisurely bike rides around the grounds or for business guests to cycle to work and leave their cars behind.

Our popular onsite restaurant uses local produce where possible. The menu is based on seasonal flavours sourced from local counties with some food sourced within Tewinbury itself: trout from our own lakes and herbs grown around the site in various locations.

With the ever-increasing popularity of electric vehicles, we are in the process of installing an electric car charging point. We don’t expect to be inundated with customers to begin with, however, this is clearly the way forward and we like to be prepared.

Energy saving

All hotel lighting, where safe to do so, has been replaced with low-energy light bulbs and where possible in public areas is now controlled by motion detectors. Light-controlled key cards have been installed in newly refurbished bedrooms.

The entire hotel heating is on a seasonal and daily timer system. The heating is switched off when bedrooms are not in use and during the summer months.

We switch off and unplug any electrical item when not in use

As we continue with our upgrade and refurbishment, the hotel sources energy-efficient products. All air conditioning units are part of the government scheme ECA in conjunction with the carbon trust.

We encourage our guests to reuse towels and bed linen

Education is the key – we hold periodic communication meetings with the hotel team on our commitment to environmental issues. Recycling results published and targets set. An internal audit is carried out to encourage commitment.

We have been awarded compliance awards from both Green Star and Crawleys for our commitment to green issues. We are currently working towards hotel compliance with the ‘green tourism’ award scheme.

Solar panels

We have recently invested in a full Solar Panel system on our new “Meadow Barn”, these panels produce 50 kW of electricity which is enough to cover our basic energy usage in the hotel.